PokerStars weekend review (September 16, 2013)

We're knee-deep in WCOOP action here at PokerStars. The WCOOP prize pool, up to and including WCOOP-24, stands at $22,747,455, more than halfway towards it festival guarantee. Three of those events are currently on a night-long break with a host of big names looking to battle their way to a title, including king of the COOPs Shaun Deeb.

If you want to rail those three big money two-day events to the final table then get up to speed by reading the info below and jumping into the PokerStars lobby. Click on 'Events' > 'WCOOP' > 'Main Events'.

WCOOP-22: $215 NLHE - Andrew 'achen' Chen looking for maiden titleAndrew 'achen' Chen leads the final 104 players in the Event #22 and is looking for his first COOP title. Chen holds close to $3m in live tournament winnings, a large €613,000 chunk of which came from his runner-up finish to Davidi Kitai in the EPT8 Berlin Main Event. Chen holds three times average with 2,819,000. Here's a little bonus insight into Chen courtesy of Team PokerStars Online's Mickey Petersen.

Andrew 'achen' Chen

Also chipped up is Eric 'AceQuad' Brix, the reigning SCOOP Leader Board champion. Brix is close to double average with 1,640,000. As 1,260 places paid, everyone left in is deep into the money with $1,616 already booked. First place carries a $276,376 reward.

Play resumes at 11:00 ET.

WCOOP-23: $10,300 NLHE High Roller - Flowers, Jaka, MacPhee, Benger and Zaichenko all in the moneyThere's some serious money up for grabs in the WCOOP-23 High Roller. Entering the second day of play just four tables and 32 players remain with the top six spots carrying six-figure payouts: it's a mouth-watering $581,100 for first. British high roller Sam "tr1cky7" Trickett will not be taking the big money as he was the last player to bust last night to book a small $17,135 win (in relative terms).

Sam Trickett

OLD TIME GIN leads the field and despite some huge results such as this Super Tuesday win will be looking for their first PokerStars win that breaks $100,000. OLD TIME GIN's 379,000 stack measures up well against the 139,500 average. Other players still in with a shout are SCOOP winners Randal "RandALLin" Flowers and Faraz "TheToilet-0" Jaka, and Kevin "ImaLuckSac" MacPhee, all of whom are short-stacked. EPT Berlin High Roller champ Griffin 'Flush_Entity' Benger is on average chips. Sitting in tenth place is Andrey "Kroko-dill" Zaichenko who is one of only two players currently on for the PokerStars Grand Slam (winning all three COOP titles and a Sunday Million), alongside Bach. Play resumes at 12:30 ET.

WCOOP-24: $700 NLHE - Mercier going strong, Deeb and Lodden chasingTeam PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier is the biggest-stacked big name player among the 205 players making it through to Day 2. Mercier holds close to twice the average stack with 325,000, while Shaun 'shaundeeb' Deeb is looking to add to his two WCOOP and five SCOOP titles with a healthy 235,000 stack.

Jason Mercier

Current chip leader Lukas 'LuCasuino777' Benkovic (575,000) is the only player to have breached the half-million mark and is good position for another big money finish. He took third place in this year's SCOOP medium Main Event for $396,731.01, which you can read about here. Team PokerStars pros Ivan Demidov and Johnny Lodden are among the short stacks still in the chase for the $364,480 payout.